FAKE Ficlet: Summer Storm
Title: Summer Storm
Fandom: FAKE
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Ryo, Dee.
Rating: G
Setting: After the manga.
Summary: Something wakes Ryo unexpectedly in the middle of the night.
Word Count: 427
Written For: My own prompt ‘FAKE, Dee/Ryo, Thunderstorm,’ at
fic_promptly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.
It’s the thunder that rouses Ryo rather than the flickering lightning, a sudden booming crash that seems to come from directly overhead and vibrates right through his bones. He’s sitting bolt upright in bed before he’s even awake, and looks around in confusion, wondering what it was that jerked him so abruptly from peaceful sleep.
Then the room is lit bright as day by a strobing flash of lightning and there’s another loud crash of thunder. Ryo flops back against his pillows in relief. Nothing to worry about; it’s just a summer storm.
Beside him in the big bed, Dee stirs and pulls the pillow over his head as the thunder rumbles once more, like gigantic boulders being rolled across the sky. “Turn the TV down,” he grumbles groggily, “’m tryin’ to sleep.” Ryo snickers; it takes a lot to wake Dee when he’s deeply asleep.
Stretched out on his back, face turned towards the window, Ryo lays quiet and relaxed, listening to the thunder and watching streaks of lightning illuminate the sky, burning afterimages of blue and pink and purple on his retinas. It’s beautiful, wild and thrilling, and after the heatwave they’ve been stifling in, it’ll hopefully bring fresher, cooler air to the city.
Even as he thinks that, there’s another flash of lightning and simultaneous boom of thunder, and the heavens open. Rain comes down in a solid sheet, so heavy that Ryo feels sorry for anyone who’s out in it; they’ll be soaked to the skin in seconds. Nevertheless, it draws him and he sits up again, leaning on the windowsill and tentatively cracking the window open to stick one arm out into the deluge.
The drops hammer against his skin so hard it’s almost painful, but he doesn’t withdraw his arm. The rain is warm but still cooler than his heated skin and marvellously refreshing. He’s almost tempted to go up on the roof and stand in it, but with the lightning flashing overheard, that wouldn’t be too smart.
“Ryo? You okay?”
He turns his head to look at Dee, who’s blearily staring at him. “I’m fine, Dee. Look, it’s raining.”
Dee crawls over to join him. “Wow, that’s some downpour!”
Grinning, Ryo flicks rainwater on his lover, laughing out loud at Dee’s gasp of shock as the cool droplets slide down his bare chest. There’s something so intimate about this; being awake together in the middle of the night as rain pours down outside.
Shoulder-to-shoulder and hip-to-hip, they lean on the windowsill in silence, watching the storm wash their city clean.
The End